Talk: "Norse/Native Contact in Arctic Canada" by Dr. Patricia Sutherland

• Event Date: Thursday, March 10, 2016
• Time: 4:00 pm (CST)
• Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
• Cost: Free Admission

• Talk
• Exhibit-Related tag

Dr. Patricia Sutherland
Adjunct Professor at Carleton University and Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland

Recently identified archaeological finds from Canada’s eastern Arctic suggest the existence of a little known chapter in North American history. Artefacts resembling those used by Europeans of the Viking and Medieval periods have been recognized in several archaeological collections from Baffin Island and the adjacent regions of northern Labrador. These collections are from site locations occupied by the Dorset culture Palaeo- Eskimos, a distinct population that inhabited Arctic Canada before the arrival of ancestral Inuit from their Alaskan homeland. Investigations undertaken as part of the Helluland Archaeological Project have also yielded other lines of evidence which suggest that the Norse, who had founded colonies in southwest Greenland, may have had a significant presence in Arctic Canada. Interactions with the Dorset culture people during the centuries around 1000 A.D. appear to have been more frequent, more widespread and more complex than has previously been believed. Relations between the Norse and the early Inuit were likely more sporadic and opportunistic.

North of the Northern Lights and its associated events are sponsored by the Dr. Allan C. Campbell Family Distinguished Speaker Series and co-sponsored by the University of Illinois European Union Center, funded in part by a US Department of Education Title VI grant.

The Spurlock Museum's changing exhibits are made possible through a gift from Allan C. and Marlene S. Campbell and supported in part by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.